AUCKLAND, New Zealand — U.S. Soccer’s Athletes Council, along with over 100 current and former national team players, is calling on Congress to make changes to how the Center for SafeSport operates.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, the Athletes Council — which represents the interests of athletes within the U.S. Soccer Federation — along with the rest of the signatories, implored elected officials to act on what it perceives to be SafeSport’s shortcomings. Those signing the document included every member of the U.S. women’s national team that is set to compete at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Members of the U.S. men’s national team, U.S. youth national teams and U.S. extended national teams also signed the letter.
“SafeSport was created with noble and important intentions, but we believe that as it stands today, SafeSport is failing in what it was meant to achieve,” the letter reads in part.
The United States Center for SafeSport was established in 2017 under the auspices of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. The legislation was passed in the wake of abuse scandals involving USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming and USA Taekwondo.
SafeSport’s primary focus is to review allegations of sexual misconduct that take place in Olympic sports. The organization can impose sanctions up to a lifetime ban of a person from involvement in all Olympic sports. SafeSport is also in charge of providing a public central database of sanctioned individuals across all sports.
The letter focuses on three areas of concern. The first is that too many cases are “administratively closed,” with no ruling in either party’s favor. The letter states that this has the effect of not providing closure for victims and allowing abusers to be free to return to their sport.
